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Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak

  • Responding to COVID-19 in the Developing World 

    The mass social distancing strategy being used to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in the United States and Europe doesn’t easily translate to a developing country like Bangladesh, which lacks the capacity to impose restrictions or provide a social safety net for the unemployed.

    Idled boats on the shore of Buriganga River in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on March 31. Photo: Ahmed Salahuddin/NurPhoto via Getty Images.
  • When Women Speak, Do People Listen?

    In a study of farming villages in Malawi, Yale SOM’s Mushfiq Mobarak and his colleagues found that women’s performance on communication tasks seemed to be hindered by how other people received their work.

    Mary Musa on her farm in Malawi in 2010.
  • Study Leverages Peer Effects to Encourage Adoption of Hygienic Latrines

    Consumers often aren’t willing to take a chance on a new product until their neighbors do. A new study investigated the use of targeted subsidies that leveraged such "peer effects" to spark adoption of hygienic latrines, which reduce the spread of pathogens.

    Children in Bangladesh during the fieldwork for the study
  • Can the Microcredit Model Be Improved?

    Studies suggest that the long-term impact of microfinance is limited. Yale SOM’s Mushfiq Mobarak and the University of Chicago’s Vikas Dimble write that the much-touted policy tool can help more people by modifying and extending its model.

    A microfinance meeting in Northern Togo. Photo: Godong/UIG via Getty Images.
  • Experiment to Save an Endangered Fish Holds Lessons for Policymakers

    Randomized control trials may offer a tool for cost-effective, evidence-based policy making and perhaps even a deeper understanding of human behavior.

    A fish vendor in Chile. Photo by Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak.
  • Can a Bus Ticket Prevent Seasonal Hunger?

    Could something as simple as a bus ticket keep hundreds of millions of people from going hungry in the months between planting and harvest?

    Field
  • Insights Animation: The Economic Benefits of Immigration

    Do new arrivals in a country take jobs away from the native residents? The picture is much more complex than that, argues Yale SOM’s Mushfiq Mobarak.

    Illustration of people doing different jobs
  • Does Immigration Create Jobs?

    Research shows that, contrary to much of the rhetoric on the topic, immigration can contribute to economic growth and expansion of the labor market

  • Can Improving Farming Productivity Save the Rainforest?

    Research by Mushfiq Mobarak suggests that improved crop productivity through electrification pushes Brazilian farmers away from land-intensive cattle grazing.

  • The Nobel Prize in Economics and the Dangers of Foreign Aid

    Professor A. Mushfiq Mobarak argues that claims about the impact of foreign aid should be tested with careful empirical study.